Thursday, March 26, 2015

Jouster Dr. Tobias Capwell Interviewed about his Part in Richard III's Burial Procession

The Los Angeles Times, one of the larger newspapers in the USA, interviewed jouster and museum curator Dr. Tobias Capwell about his part in the burial procession for the recently discovered remains of Richard III. Toby Capwell(as he is known to the jousting community) and another jouster – Dominic Sewell – wore their knightly armour and rode their jousting horses as they escorted the vehicle carrying Richard III's remains to their final resting place.

The article does not mention Toby's jousting endeavors, instead focusing on his work as a museum curator at The Wallace Collection and his historical knowledge of King Richard III. However, it is well worth reading for anyone interested in Toby, his work or Richard III.

England's King Richard III was killed twice: first by his challenger, Henry Tudor, at the battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, and again, in posthumous reputation, by Tudor historians and by Shakespeare, who portrayed the last English king to die in battle as a "bunch-backed toad" and accused him of murdering his young nephews in the Tower of London to become king. Richard's skeleton was, astonishingly, discovered in 2012 and identified through DNA. It is being reburied in Leicester, England, this week with far more pomp than 530 years ago, when it was dumped into a soon-forgotten grave that was eventually covered with a parking lot. One of the two knights escorting the king on his last journey is Tobias Capwell, born in Petaluma and now a top British medieval military historian — a California Yankee in King Richard's court.

You and your colleague, in full medieval armor, escorted the king's coffin in the reburial procession, even on the same bridge where a horse carrying the king's body had crossed. What a moment for a historian.

There was an extraordinary sense of occasion. I think the most moving moment was when we stood on either side of the cathedral doors and the pallbearers brought the coffin right past us.
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